Tree Nuts and Peanuts as a Source of Natural Antioxidants in our Daily Diet.
Tree nuts and peanuts are healthful foods with a track record of helping to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases, most notably cardiovascular disease. At the point of consumption, all nuts contain low moisture and ≥ 50% lipid contents, but this is where similarities end. The levels of key nutrients and bioactives including vitamin C, […]
Advances in Crop Improvement and Delivery Research for Nutritional Quality and Health Benefits of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.).
Groundnut is an important global food and oil crop that underpins agriculture-dependent livelihood strategies meeting food, nutrition, and income security. Aflatoxins, pose a major challenge to increased competitiveness of groundnut limiting access to lucrative markets and affecting populations that consume it. Other drivers of low competitiveness include allergens and limited shelf life occasioned by low […]
Allergen Removal and Transfer Using Wiping and Cleaning Methods in Retail and Food Service Establishments.
Preventing the transfer of allergens from one food to another via food-contact surfaces in retail food environments is an important aspect of retail food safety. Existing recommendations for wiping and cleaning food-contact surfaces is mainly focused on preventing microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses from contaminating foods. The effectiveness of these wiping and cleaning recommendations […]
Updated population minimal eliciting dose distributions for use in risk assessment of 14 priority food allergens.
Food allergy and allergen management are important global public health issues. In 2011, the first iteration of our allergen threshold database (ATDB) was established based on individual NOAELs and LOAELs from oral food challenge in roughly 1750 allergic individuals. Population minimal eliciting dose (EDp) distributions based on this dataset were published for 11 allergenic foods […]
A Single Monoclonal Antibody against the Peanut Allergen Ara h 2 Protects against Systemic and Local Peanut Allergy.
Background: Peanut allergy is the most prevalent and dangerous food allergy. Peanuts consist of a large number of different allergens and peanut-allergic patients are frequently sensitized to multiple allergens. Hence, conventional desensitization approaches aim at targeting as many allergens as possible. Methods: The monoclonal anti-Ara h 2 antibody (mAb) was produced by hybridoma cells derived from WT […]
Can my child with IgE‐mediated peanut allergy introduce foods labeled with “may contain traces”?.
Peanut IgE-mediated food allergy is one of the most common food allergies in children with a prevalence that has increased in the past decades in westernized countries. Peanut allergies can trigger severe reactions and usually persist over time. Peanut-allergic children and their families are often confronted to processed foods with precautionary allergen labeling (PAL) such […]
A 5-year retrospective review of children with peanut allergy in the largest paediatric hospital in Singapore.
Background: The prevalence of peanut allergy (PA) among children has increased significantly over the past decade. Even though the prevalence of PA in Singapore is considered low, peanut is the top trigger for food-induced anaphylaxis in Singaporean children. Objective: To describe the demographic characteristics and clinical features of children with PA. Methods: This is a 5-year retrospective review […]
Functional Biology and Molecular Mechanisms of Host-Pathogen Interactions for Aflatoxin Contamination in Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and Maize (Zea mays L.).
Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites produced by soilborne saprophytic fungus Aspergillus flavus and closely related species that infect several agricultural commodities including groundnut and maize. The consumption of contaminated commodities adversely affects the health of humans and livestock. Aflatoxin contamination also causes significant economic and financial losses to producers. Research efforts and significant progress have been made in […]
Thermosensitive Hydrogel for Encapsulation and Controlled Release of Biocontrol Agents to Prevent Peanut Aflatoxin Contamination.
Starch, alginate, and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) were combined to prepare a semi-interpenetrating network (IPN) hydrogel with temperature sensitivity. Calcium chloride was used as cross-linking agent, the non-toxigenic Aspergillus flavus spores were successfully encapsulated as biocontrol agents by the method of ionic gelation. Characterization of the hydrogel was performed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron micrograph (SEM), and […]
A Sensitive, Point-of-Care Detection of Small Molecules Based on a Portable Barometer: Aflatoxins In Agricultural Products.
Sensitive and point-of-care detection of small toxic molecules plays a key role in food safety. Aflatoxin, a typical small toxic molecule, can cause serious healthcare and economic issues, thereby promoting the development of sensitive and point-of-care detection. Although ELISA is one of the official detection methods, it cannot fill the gap between sensitivity and point-of-care […]